Steam power plants generate power by boiling high-pressure water to high-pressure steam in a boiler and sending the high-pressure steam into a steam turbine in which it expands. The expansion of the steam drives the steam turbine which provides power to a drive shaft generally used to power an electric generator. The steam exits the steam turbine as low-pressure steam but generally still contains most of the energy supplied by the boiler. Much of the energy of the low-pressure steam is lost in the steam condenser during the process of cooling the low-pressure steam to low-pressure water. The low-pressure water is pumped to high-pressure water before re-entering the boiler.
Energy conversion devices which have a convex meniscus are well known from the prior art. For example, EP 0 135 419 A2 to Kaplan, as shown in FIG. 4A through 4C, discloses a first container (30), a second container (32) separated from the first container (30), a working liquid (6, 10) disposed in said first and second containers in such a way that it has an open surface (8, 12) within each of the containers in communication with a vapor (16) of the working liquid, the working liquid vapor (16) being in communication with the open surfaces (8, 12) of the working liquid of each container (30, 32) and means for connecting the working liquids of the first (30) and second (32) containers to an external hydraulic circuit (28, 34, 36), wherein the working liquid in the first container (30) presents a convex meniscus surface (8) to the vapor (16) of working liquid in communication between the first (30) and second (32) containers, said convex meniscus (8) having a higher mean curvature than the average mean curvature of the open surface (12) of the working liquid disposed in the second container (32). The reference IEP 0 135 419 A2 to Kaplan and the corresponding reference U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,904 A to Kaplan are each incorporated by reference herein.
Another example of an energy conversion device having a convex meniscus is US 2010/0115977 A1 to Saroka, which discloses a device having working liquid disposed in a first container and a second container and a membrane creating convex menisci on an open surface of the working liquid disposed in the first container. The reference US 2010/0115977 A1 to Saroka and the corresponding reference GB 2 441 149 A to Saroka are each incorporated by reference herein. Another example of an energy conversion device is U.S. Pat. No. 4,470,268 A to Schilling, which discloses a boiler and condenser having a convex meniscus. The reference U.S. Pat. No. 4,470,268 A to Schilling is incorporated by reference herein. Another example of an energy conversion device is U.S. Pat. No. 6,857,269 B2 to Baker, which discloses a turbine and capillary action. The reference U.S. Pat. No. 6,857,269 B2 to Baker is incorporated by reference herein.